Thomas quickly found an inn for the night, had an early dinner with Snowlily and hid inside of his room as fast as possible. All throughout dinner he kept glancing at the door, expecting Isaaks or town guards to come barging in wanting to arrest or execute him. His fears never manifested but they still kept his nerves wound tightly. Once he was in the room with the door locked he felt a little safer. He knew logically that a cheap wooden door would never stop anyone from breaking into his room. However, emotionally it did him some good and felt 'safe'.
Snowlily didn't seem bothered by anything that had happened. To her Thomas was Thomas, his race didn't matter to her at all. She also didn't understand, or care about, the implications his race had. She just relaxed on the bed while Thomas sat on the edge of it. He pulled out his Spell Cannon and all the ammunition he'd made for it. He made sure that everything was filled to the brim, it already was, and stored it away again. He also made sure that the Peace Maker was fully loaded and ready for use at a moments notice. He wanted all of his weapons ready for combat, just in case.
He'd maintained his gear well and always had his weapons loaded and ready for combat at a moments notice. The Spell Cannon was still loaded with the Fire Arrow shell since he hadn't taken the time to test the others yet. He planned to fire off some shots into the sea while he was on the ship to test the remaining shells. He'd been far more interested in the books he'd purchased than testing the Spell Cannon on his trip. Thinking of his books, he stripped down and pulled out a book on tailoring.
It was by far one of the thinnest books of the lot. Most tailoring was just for making clothing and the patterns for that were near infinite. Trying to write them all down in a book was pointless as fashion changed constantly and changed from region to region. The book mostly contained useful information like ways to perform specific stitches to get desired results. It did contain something precious though, a way to stitch enchantments into clothing! Back when he learned tailoring there was no known method for making enchanted clothing. After all, you couldn't carve cloth to deposit the enchanting medium into it. The book he was reading contained a method that allowed the enchanting medium to be bound to thread and maintain its flexibility so it could be stitched into cloth.
Thankfully the specific formula needed was listed by name allowing Thomas to pull out the massive tome on Alchemy and look for the formula. He found it nearly three-quarters of the way into the book and started reading it. He had no clue about the rarity of the listed materials but the process itself was rather simple. He just needed to brew the mixture as it was listed then add in mana crystals and unspooled thread. Once the thread soaked for a full day the enchanting medium would bind to the thread and allow him to create enchantments with it. He wrote down the dozen ingredients he would need to find for the formula. He would look for them tomorrow and get his hands on as many as possible.
With the list prepared he started thinking about the possibilities that the formula possessed. While it was designed to just be a thread that enchanted clothing the possibilities were so much more. With his Spell Cannon, he was forced to carve out the lines he used to channel mana to his enchantments. With the thread, he would basically be able to make the equivalent of wires! Not just that but the 'wires' for channeling mana could be hidden within the weapon protecting them from damage. Even if they did get damaged he would have the ability to just remove and replace the damaged wire with relative ease.
Ideas danced through his mind. He could take multiple threads and braid them together to make thicker cables then coat those cables in something flexible, like rubber, and make true wires. Each possibility that passed through his mind further excited him. Especially possibilities like creating a plug and play wiring system inside of his U.L.T.R.A. that would basically be a magic version of household power plugs.
He let his mind wander for a bit longer before forcing himself to calm his thinking. Using Serenity helped a lot and finally let him drift off to sleep for the night. Tomorrow was already nice and planned out.
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The next day there was a simple breakfast before the two of them left the inn and made their way to the docks. Being the docks for a major port city, they were packed with ships of all sizes and people transporting cargo to and from them. The place was even busier than the heart of the city. Hundreds of people were walking up and down various docks carrying bags, crates, and pushing trolly's filled with products. Trains of wagons were loaded and drove off only to be instantly replaced with more. At least it seemed organized as there were sections and docks specifically for loading and unloading cargo. Thanks to the depth of the water and length of the docks even massive galleons could pull directly up to the docks to do their business.
It took some time but Thomas finally got directions to the offices of the port that kept track of the ships coming in, going out, their departure points, and their next destinations. Thomas had to wait in line a bit as ship representatives did their various duties and made reports or paid fees and taxes. Once it was his turn he approached the counter and smiled at the middle-aged man who was still filling information into a logbook from the previous person. Once he finished he looked up at Thomas, "What can I do for you today?"
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
Thomas got straight to the point, "I'm looking to book passage on a ship heading to Solvikia. The port doesn't matter."
Thomas was not familiar with the ports of Solvikia or which one would be closest to his destination of Kafla. He just wanted to get to the country and figure it out from there. The man behind the counter nodded and flipped through the pages of his logbook. He wrote down the names of three ships and passed the piece of paper over to Thomas, "These three all have Solvikia as their destinations."
Thomas accepted the piece of paper and stepped to the side to let the next person in line go about their business. He looked at the names of the three ships listed, "The Windflower", "The Anchorite", and "The Waterhen" were the three ships listed. He flagged down a dock worker and got directions to the dock where the first ship on the list, The Windflower, was parked. When he arrived he found a large four-masted ship that was either a carrack or galleon. Thomas didn't know enough about ships to really tell the difference from the details. All he really needed to know was that it was big and heading for his destination.
After a bit of asking around, he was directed to the person in charge of passengers for the ship. He was a gruff man with suntanned and weathered skin as well as a salt and pepper beard. He just screamed 'sailor' when Thomas looked at him. Thomas got right to the point again, "I'm looking for a ship to book passage on that's heading to Solvikia. How much is the fare, how long is the trip, and when do you depart?"
The sailor gave Thomas a toothy grin, "Straight to the point eh? Alright. If your planning to go with us it'll cost ya seventeen hundred gold for you and another seventeen hundred for your friend there." He indicated Snowlily, "The trip takes anywhere from fifteen to twenty days depending on weather and such. We depart in five days, once all our cargo arrives and gets loaded."
Thomas was shocked! At least two weeks on the ship after waiting almost a week for it to leave? If so that meant it would take nearly a month for him to just get to the other continent! Thomas frowned and asked, "Why does the trip take so long?"
The sailor let out a sigh, "I take it ya ain't never been on the sea before eh? No need to answer. It's simple really. We have to stick to the shallower waters and sail a good distance up the coast before making our way across to the other continent. If we could sail straight across it would cut a lot of time off the trip but we can't! If you sail over the deeper waters you're just begging to be killed by some colossal sea monster! They own the deeper waters and anything that enters them is nothing more than prey. We take the safest route we can, and even then there's a risk as we pass over some deep water for a couple of hundred kilometers."
Thomas continued to frown. It was a pretty common thing for the seas in games to contain powerful monsters to make travel difficult until flight and teleportation were easily achieved by players. This was still early in the game so such convenient methods were hidden or 'state secrets' that the players would never be given access to. Hell, Thomas hadn't even witnessed anyone flying yet though there should be plenty of people capable of it. It was clearly the games way of hindering traveling until players became stronger. Just as other games hid things like gaining mounts behind levels.
Thomas thanked the sailor and left to check the remaining two ships. The travel time was likely to be pretty similar but if he could get an earlier departure time that would be better. There was also the price for passage to consider. He had more than enough gold to afford the three thousand four hundred that was required to travel on the Windflower, but there was no harm in finding cheaper passage!
Thomas asked around before making his way to the next ship on his list, The Anchorite. Like The Windflower, it was a large cargo ship likely to be a carrack or galleon. Thomas found the sailor in charge of passengers and went through the same thing with him. The Anchorite was leaving the day after tomorrow and the expected travel time was pretty much the same. As for the cost, fifteen hundred each for himself and Snowlily. This meant the Anchorite was leaving sooner and was less expensive than the Windflower. There was still one last ship to check, if it wasn't any better then he would be leaving in two days on the Anchorite.
The third ship, The Waterhen, was slightly smaller than the previous two ships. In his discussion, he found that The Waterhen was leaving tomorrow. The fee was just twelve hundred gold each and that the trip would be a few days faster than the other two ships. The Waterhen was slightly smaller with large sails giving it a little extra boost to speed as long as the wind was good. Still, it could potentially take The Waterhen just as long as the other two ships if the wind wasn't with them. Going up the coast wouldn't be much of an issue as there would be plenty of wind, it was the sea crossing that could pose the issue. That two hundred or so kilometers of open sea were the slowest and most dangerous section of the trip.
Thomas thought about it for a bit. The cabins on The Waterhen were smaller than the cabins on the other two ships due to their size. The price reflected that. The price was based on a seventeen-day trip, the middle-ground between fifteen and twenty days. The Windflower charged a hundred gold per day, the Anchorite charged about ninety gold a day, and the Waterhen charged just about seventy gold per day. However, there was one thing that became the deciding factor for Thomas. The Waterhen only served monster meat for meals! For them, it was a way to cut down on costs. For him, it was a delicious treat!
Thomas sealed the deal and set an appointment to arrive later that night so he would already be on board for when the ship left in the morning. They were just waiting on one last shipment to arrive and it was scheduled to arrive before noon the following day. Once it was loaded the ship would head off immediately. Thomas paid the twenty-four hundred gold for himself and Snowlily so he could claim the key to his cabin. With everything set and it getting close to noon, Thomas left The Waterhen and went back into the city. He had lunch to eat and shopping to do!